Senior Member of American Society for Quality (Member #: 00749775), International Member of American Production and Inventory Control Society (Member #: 1023620), and Senior Member of Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (Member #: 880194630).

Senior Member of American Society for Quality (Member #: 00749775), International Member of American Production and Inventory Control Society (Member #: 1023620), and Senior Member of Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (Member #: 880194630).

The Operational Management Curriculum, often referred to as the Production and Operations Management (POM) in Indonesian Universities, needs to be revised in order to be ABLE to follow modern times.

We may use references from ISO (International Organization for Standardization), IISE (Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineering), APICS (American Production and Inventory Control Society), or others as references for renewing syllabus/curriculum related to Production and Operations Management as the real needs of advanced industrial world have changed.

ISO References can be read here:

Given the importance of Operations Management, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has issued ISO/IEC 62264-3:2016, entitled: Enterprise-control system integration – Part 3: Activity models of manufacturing operations management, which defines the activity models of manufacturing operations management; thus, enabling enterprise systems to control the existing integrated systems.

After understanding this ISO version of operations management, then we have had complete information to be able to develop curriculum, course syllabus, or to prepare ourselves independently to achieve the minimum expected COMPETENCIES based on international standards so that we will be able to compete and/or cooperate with professionals from various countries in the world. Such model will be far more EFFECTIVE and EFFICIENT, than just collecting some textbooks and studying independently from those textbooks or putting together the content of curriculum and/or syllabus by simply extracting what are considered important in the content of those textbooks. This kind of learning framework is called by the author (VG) as NOT having international standards. If we do NOT refer to International Standards, even if we have the highest GPA (maximum) in Operations Management, that does NOT guarantee that we already have had the minimum COMPETENCE in Operations Management.

Bibliography

From the ISO/IEC 62264-3:2016 framework of Operations Management above, we know that someone who has minimum COMPETENCE in Operations Management MUST understand well the following main topics:

Structuring concepts of Operations Management

Structuring models of Operations Management

Production operations management

Maintenance operations management

Quality operations management

Inventory operations management

Completeness, compliance and conformance

The main topics in Operations Management of ISO/IEC 62264-3:2016 should be studied thoroughly in courses that have a concentration area of Operations Management, whether within two or three semesters. So we are NOT just adding other topics outside of the main topics above, where the lesson from those additional topics is NOT COMPLETE and ONLY touches just on the surface of definitions and some general concepts that do NOT support the minimum COMPETENCE in Operations Management.

If we consider there is still time to learn and we want to add additional topics, then we should add those topics that are very relevant and closely related to Operations Management. For example, we add a lesson about Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in Operations Management ISO 22400-2:2014, entitled: Automation systems and integration – Key performance indicators (KPIs) for manufacturing operations management – Part 2: Definitions and descriptions, which will be discussed below.

The following information is related to Operations Engineering and Management

Operations Engineering and Management

Operations Engineering and Management is a field of engineering management that handles the design and analysis of production and service processes. From the point of view of Industrial Engineering, this field of knowledge uses tools and techniques to ensure business operations function efficiently by using some of the required resources and effectively meeting customer needs.

The Minimum COMPETENCIES that MUST be understood in Operations Engineering and Management are:

That knowledge area No. 7 on Operations Engineering and Management in Industrial Engineering BoK published by IISE (Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers) in September 2016 can be further explored through obtaining professional degree in Production and Inventory Management from APICS (American Production and Inventory Control Society) so as to prove our COMPETENCE through obtaining APICS CPIM (Certified in Production and Inventory Management). The validity period of APICS CPIM certificate is five years, which must be renewed continuously in every five year period.

Since September 2017, APICS has changed the model of its CPIM exam from the original that was based on five modules. Thus, instead of having to take the tests of those five modules (5 exams), now it would be SUFFICIENT to only take two exams (two parts), namely: (1) Part 1 Exam consists of the Basics of Supply Chain Module, and (2) Part 2 Exam consists of four modules: Strategic Management of Resources, Master Planning of Resources, Detailed Scheduling and Planning and Execution and Control of Operations.

Based on the exam information, part 1 exam had been started for the first time on September 30, 2017 and part 2 exam began on November 4, 2017.

Part 1 Exam: Basics of Supply Chain Module

Number of test questions: 150 (130 questions are in the real test while 20 questions are in the pretest).

Test duration: 210 minutes (3.5 hours).

Part 2 Exam: the following Four modules:

Module 1 – Strategic Management of Resources

Module 2 – Master Planning of Resources

Module 3 – Detailed Scheduling and Planning

Module 4 – Execution and Control of Operations

Number of test questions: 150 (130 questions are in the real test while 20 questions are in the pretest). Each module has 25% weight.

Test duration: 210 minute (3.5 hours)

MAIN COMPETENCY in APICS CPIM Exam

APICS CPIM Part 1:

APICS CPIM Part 1 exam consists of four main sections, each of which has a 25% assessment weight, which are: (1) Business-wide Concepts, (2) Demand Management, (3) Transformation of Demand into Supply, and (4) Supply.

Business-Wide Concepts (25%)

Supply Chain Fundamentals

Operating Environment

Financial Fundamentals

Demand Management

Market Driven

Voice of the Customer

Demand Management

Transformation of Demand into Supply

Product and Process Design

Capacity Management

Planning

Supply

Inventory

Purchasing Cycle

Distribution

REFERENCES:

APICS has provided some of the following references that can be used as learning materials to increase the chance of passing the CPIM (Certified in Production and Inventory Management) exam.

APICS CPIM Part 2:

APICS CPIM Part 2 exam consists of four main modules, each of which has a 25% assessment weight, namely: (1) Strategic Management of Resources, (2) Master Planning of Resources, (3) Detailed Scheduling and Planning and (4) Execution and Control of Operations.

Strategic Management of Resources

Demand Management

Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP)

Master Scheduling

Detailed Scheduling and Planning

Inventory Management

Planning Material Requirements to Support the Master Schedule

Planning Operations to Support the Priority Plan

Execution and Control of Operations

Execution of Operations

Control of Operations

Quality, Communication, and Continuous Improvement

Strategic Management of Resources

Understanding the Business Environment and Developing Corporate Strategy

The above information can be used as a comparison or preparation whether an Industrial Engineering graduate, with a concentration area of Operations Engineering and Management, has the competence to take APICS CPIM’s professional exam. This is important considering the passing percentage of APICS CPIM exam is not very high, while the exam cost and its preparation time are high.